Allentown received $499,100, just beneath the $500,000 per-project limit, for pedestrian lighting improvements along Seventh Street, and a private applicant in the city, Muhlenberg College, got $172,500 for crosswalk improvements on Chew Street through the campus, including in-pavement flashing lights in the crosswalks.

In addition, Community Bike Works, a nonprofit bicycle-education program for inner-city youth in Allentown, was awarded $158,485 in part to provide classroom instruction in some of the city schools.

Bethlehem's request for $500,000 to help repair the High Street Bridge, thus maintaining a vital rail-trail link, was passed over, to the disappointment of city officials. The city's $575,000 application for sidewalk curb-ramp improvements also whiffed, but the bridge project is a higher priority for the city.

Bethlehem Planning Director Darlene Heller and Public Works Director Michael Alkhal groused a bit, but neither voted against the group of 10 funded projects as a whole.

The Planning Commission and PennDOT staffs selected the projects to be recommended for funding, and members of the Study, chiefly municipal officials appointed to the group, voted on the proposal. The vote took place at the Study's meeting in the Planning Commission offices in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.

Heller objected to the timing of the process: The list of winners and losers was handed out at the start of the meeting, and the vote was called within 30 minutes, after Gurinko briefly described the selection process and Study members asked a few questions.

"It concerns me that we get a list at the start of the meeting and we're expected to vote on it right away," Heller said. The process gave applicants no chance to respond to any concerns the administrators who made the choices might have had about the unfunded projects, Heller said.

"I agree, Darlene," Gurinko said, but added "we were under a tight time frame" to make the choices — applicants appeared at the board's last meeting just three weeks ago to tout their projects — and it couldn't be helped, Gurinko said.

Gurinko also said the High Street Bridge project is complex in part because it involves an abandoned rail line and state Public Utility Commission review, and that the project could be awarded other state or federal money in the future.

Alkhal said he had considered voting "no" as a kind of protest — his would have been the only opposing response — but decided against it because he knew there were many more applications than dollars to go around.

The 10-project list was approved without dissent by both the Study's advisory Technical Committee, and by the deciding Coordinating Committee, in back-to-back meetings Monday.

Easton's lone request for $500,000 worth of pedestrian improvements and traffic signal upgrades at five intersections also finished out of the running Monday.

In fact, officials had to "borrow" just over $563,000 from future state funding to cover the $3.88 million for the 10 chosen projects, Gurinko said.

Also Monday, Gurinko said no decision has yet been made regarding the fate of the Fifth Street Bridge over Route 22 in the Fullerton section of Whitehall Township.

Current plans call for the bridge to be demolished and replaced with a less-expensive pedestrian-only span, but township officials and many residents have strongly urged officials to build a new vehicular bridge to prevent traffic problems.